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Series Code: AVMN
Program Code: AVMN000010
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00:01 Welcome to ASi Video magazine. I'm Dan
00:31 Houghton. ASi members were involved in a variety of 00:34 of ministries all around the world. They are 00:37 involved in Evangelism, construction projects, 00:39 humanitarian work and even more. But the focus 00:42 is always the same, sharing Christ in the 00:45 market place. Today we are going to meet ASi 00:48 members that are sharing Christ right here in North 00:51 America. Phil and Sherry Mills were headed home from 00:55 an ASi convention inspired by the testimonies 00:58 they had heard from people who were actively sharing 01:01 Christ with those around them. Phil and Sherry felt 01:04 called to be involved as well. But what was God's 01:07 plan for them. How could they best serve others? 01:10 God eventually led them to establish a ministry of 01:13 their own called My Bible First. Luther is just 01:19 tearing up the ball with the poset, falling of 01:24 the stars. The protested of the princes remember, 01:31 how they protested, oh there's just so many 01:35 teacher abundantly during the reformation days and 01:41 people were learning truth from the Bible. We 01:45 have, we have a miracle happen that gave us 01:50 thousands of pictures for Bible pictures 'cause it 01:53 was impossible to get any other wise. You can't 01:58 afford he copyright charges and some, they 02:01 are often limited even, you can't have what you 02:05 need. At that time you know we were just beginning. 02:13 so thankfully just the summer before Phil had 02:19 introduced to a gentleman who collected Bible 02:23 pictures royalty free and he's putting them on 02:27 to a CD. And he remembered that, had his address, 02:32 he was his first customer. Especially for the, the 02:37 in reformation days those, those were difficult to 02:44 get accept using wood cuts. And if you know what a 02:49 wood cut is, its extremely hard to cover. Just a black 02:56 and white wood cut and get anything out of it. 02:59 Finally you know I was reduced to just color 03:04 pencils. The ministry began actually just as a project 03:08 for our local church. There was a need there 03:12 for a series of Bible lessons that would go in 03:16 chronological order from Genesis to Revelation. 03:18 We had a family with a Buddhist background 03:23 who was becoming very interested in Christianity 03:25 and they knew nothing about the Bible. 03:29 While we were in the Philippines about 40 03:32 years prior to that my mother had written 03:35 through the Bible lessons for children and I thought 03:39 that would be the perfect answer. So I went and 03:42 asked her and I said mother, you know we need 03:45 lessons for our children here. Would you be 03:48 willing to let me take those lessons and just 03:52 print them off whites and illustrations to them. 03:55 And I said no. That's, may be doing that as English 03:58 being a second language and that's not the case 04:01 here. She said well, just do something for next week. 04:05 And she wrote the first lesson and the second one 04:09 and they presented it to the church board to see if 04:12 that would be something they would like to use in 04:14 their Sabbath schools and they were very thrilled, it 04:16 was just what they needed for these in their church. 04:19 So we went from there and our teachers loved it. 04:23 They said oh this is good we really like this and so 04:26 on. And of course you know once you put your 04:31 feet in the Jordan, then the door opens and then 04:33 the river opens and we were often going. There 04:38 was just no way to stop then and so, but we still 04:42 were doing it for our own church. We had no pilot 04:45 going anywhere. A friend put it on her website just 04:49 saying these lessons were available and then also 04:53 visitors coming through our Church we had a lot of 04:55 visitors. And it happened so fast, we were just 04:59 having calls. People, what they were doing is 05:02 putting it on their website. I still don't know 05:04 what a website is but they were putting it on a 05:07 website. And for some reason other people were 05:10 picking it up and saying we want to you know convey 05:12 and Sherry must be inundated. That was the only 05:16 word for her and it was all happening so fast. 05:19 Even the phone calls began to be 5, 10, 15 a day 05:23 at that point I began to realize there was no way we 05:28 could slowly print out on our little printer and hand 05:33 fold and send these things out. And then I realized 05:38 that this was becoming much bigger than I had 05:42 anticipated. And so, I went and purchased 05:46 a folding machine and we made some investments that we 05:52 thought will never be renumerated or will recoup, 05:58 but this is okay. This is all part of the ministry 06:02 and we never dreamed how much we would need those 06:05 pieces of equipment because the growth didn't stop. 06:09 And that was of course, when first of all their 06:13 older daughter helped get some kind of a business 06:16 thing going so that she could keep track of these 06:19 people and pay what they needed to pay because we 06:24 were just charging the very and in fact we still 06:26 are charging even lower than we should probably. 06:30 But, anyhow when Jennifer finally came into 06:35 the picture it was like God sending us help. 06:40 Really, we needed her and she came in and she 06:45 took over. Not taking over the writing and all of 06:49 that but as far as the getting everything 06:51 organized and running properly in a business like 06:56 way, she put us on the road for that. It wouldn't be 07:01 possible to have a ministry without the sacrificial 07:06 work of numerous other people. It's the little 07:12 rivulets that make the streams that make the rivers. 07:17 ASi was actually what was I guess we could say 07:22 the inspiration for starting the ministry. 07:25 When I went to that first ASi, I couldn't believe it I 07:30 heard so many people say you've got to go to ASi, 07:33 you've got to go, it's an incredible experience 07:35 until I decided I didn't even want to go, so many 07:38 people were telling me I should, but when we got 07:41 there and I sat there for that first meeting and 07:44 testimony after testimony of what people were 07:48 doing out there in their own homes or in the 07:51 market place as we call it, I was just amazed. I 07:55 couldn't believe what I was hearing, how God 07:59 was blessing. I was so inspired that that's why I 08:02 came home and I said Phil, we are busy in the 08:06 church but I want a ministry. We started 08:09 praying every morning and before the end of the 08:15 next month I believe he opened a door that I didn't 08:19 at the time realize it's going to become our My 08:21 Bible First Ministry. And ASi has put us in 08:24 contact with a lot of wonderful people across 08:26 the world, especially ASi has been helpful in the 08:31 area of translations we have been able to meet 08:33 folks who are interested in translating to other 08:37 languages and making these materials available 08:40 for children in their own languages. Currently, 08:44 they are being translated into French and 08:46 Portuguese and we are in the process of making 08:50 arrangements for them to be translated into Mandarin. 08:53 Without any real intervention, any forethought 08:58 on our part, other than trying to produce a good 09:00 product for our little church, it just was explosive 09:06 growth. God took care of the advertising. He was 09:10 our publicity agent, he was our marketer. We 09:12 were sending out more than three million pages 09:15 of printed literature that we print in our basement 09:18 every year. It brought him great blessing to me. As he 09:24 worked on these, but he, we both, like you guys 09:29 used to say, my spiritual experiences that it's high 09:33 time Morgan and I join the Calvary, while for me 09:37 my experience was as hyphened as organized 09:40 classes. You're right with the Bible and the spirit of 09:47 prophecy. Well, I have a pretty good imagination 09:51 you know. Even better, it kind of makes life 09:55 more fun for me. But, El Wood is such a, he is so 10:01 strict about this business of being able to prove 10:05 everything that you're saying. I tell him, I 10:08 tease him and say you know you don't even give 10:11 me half an inch of sanctified imagination. 10:15 He said that's alright. There are going to be 10:18 people who want to know where did you get that. 10:21 That's probably why his editing took a little longer 10:25 than we sometimes write. But if you say in your 10:30 lessons, if you say something like, do you 10:32 suppose Jacob was scared, you know, expressions 10:36 like that you can get by with putting some things 10:40 in which you're pretty sure zhappened and were true 10:43 but at the same time you can't give a page 10:46 reference or a verse reference. The lessons were 10:50 designed to take people not to their Sabbath school 10:53 by lesson alone, but that was simply a vehicle to 10:58 take the children to their Bibles and so we wanted 11:02 them to read the Bible for every lesson everyday. 11:08 Some of the questions you couldn't answer without 11:10 reading the Bible and so that was our original 11:14 intent. Let's help our members particularly our new 11:18 members who wouldn't know how to have family worship. 11:20 Develop the family worship blessing in habit. 11:24 And I know one thing that, that I noticed this 11:27 past week, Luella our daughter has been going 11:34 through one of the stories that she, that she 11:37 remembers from our worship and I let her look through 11:41 the lesson and she went through there and she found 11:44 one of the stories and started going back through it 11:47 from the pictures. She looked at the pictures and 11:50 it was a story about Jesus in the storm. And so I 11:55 wasn't there going through it with her but I heard her 11:58 talking about it and she was looking at the pictures 12:01 and talking about a big storm and she was talking 12:04 about how, she was talking about different things 12:07 but we could tell that she had remembered the story 12:10 and then the pictures as she was looking at the 12:13 pictures it reminded her what we have talked about in 12:16 worship and that that's neat to see in a two-year-old. 12:19 We have to remember that children don't inherit 12:23 understanding of the Bible. They don't inherit 12:27 their love for the Lord and they have to, they 12:32 have to be taught and the purpose of our lessons is 12:38 to meet the children and their families on a daily 12:42 basis to the Lord and have an experience with 12:46 him. If they don't then we have completely missed 12:50 the whole point of doing this, we want to equip 12:58 them to, that they're able to live in these last days 13:03 and to serve the lord as their primary goal in life. 13:07 It stopped. And what happened to the rain? 13:11 Rain? It stopped. It stopped. And what happened to the 13:14 waves. Waves. They went away. And 13:17 there was no more storm. My Bible First has come 13:21 a long way over the years but it all started with a 13:25 desire to serve and a willingness to let God 13:28 lead. ASi is filled with people like Phil and 13:32 Sherry Mills. People excited to use whatever 13:35 they have for the glory of God. For more information 13:38 about My Bible First call 877-242-5317 or visit 13:44 www.mybiblefirst.org. ASi is made up of approximately 13:51 one thousand member organizations. They vary 13:54 from businesses and supporting ministries to 13:56 to individual professionals. Businesses and Ministries 14:00 and join as organizational members while individuals 14:03 become associate members. Being an ASi member has been 14:07 a real blessing for me and I invite you to join us in 14:11 sharing Christ in the market place. To apply 14:14 for ASi membership give us a call or visit our website. 14:19 The most enjoyable thing about ASi is the people 14:22 you meet. People that are in other sides or particular 14:25 fellowship. They are just closer, even closer 14:29 to family. ASi is a great opportunity for anyone 14:33 to meet people, to see different Ministeries. 14:36 The Fellowship is just heavenly. 14:49 Imagine being in prison and the changes that 14:52 would bring. Now imagine being released from 14:56 prison perhaps after many years of being 14:58 inside, another difficult change. Shelter from the 15:02 storm is an ASi member organization in Gainesville, 15:06 Florida that provides half way support for 15:09 ex-convicts. It's a Christ centered program to 15:12 bring ex-convicts back into society and into the 15:16 arms of Jesus. You can see right here. You know 15:21 we got 3ABN, the hope channel where the mans 15:25 can look at the television, you know get spiritual 15:29 strength. We also got materials, we also have 15:34 tapes here. We all, also get the Adventist 15:38 letters, magazine. May be 11 years ago a young 15:44 man, he was a older guy, I shouldn't say younger 15:47 man, Nathan Edwards. He and I sat down while I 15:54 was still incarcerated and we talked about a First 15:55 Day church opening a home for ex, people who 16:00 got out of prison. And I asked him what was our 16:04 denomination doing about this situation because if 16:09 you have a prison ministry you will have 16:11 individuals who join the Church, what are you 16:13 going to do to try to facilitate or to help them 16:16 once they got out of prison. How about training 16:18 volunteers in one prison to work with inmates 16:20 behind prison walls and to get them to enter their 16:24 truth. But when they get out of prison usually 16:28 where they go is the First Day Church half way 16:31 house and they get confused and mixed up in 16:34 their beliefs. What do I tell them? We don't have a 16:37 half way house that belong to this denomination, 16:40 what do you tell them. When I was in prison in 16:44 1996 I received this message and accept this 16:50 message. And I didn't want to go back to them 16:54 old friends and lifestyle because you know the 16:57 Holy Ghost have come into my life and I was 17:00 saved, I was converted, I didn't want to go back, so 17:04 I went to one of the prison ministry leaders 17:07 Elder John Washington. I said hey when I get out, I 17:10 would like to go to one of you all half way house. 17:13 And he looked at me frightened and said what's 17:15 the problem. He said we don't have near one of 17:17 them. And I was like you don't have now, you say 17:21 you have the truth and you don't have no place 17:24 for me to go. And I was behaving in a Adventist 17:27 ways and he go First Day Church say hey we have 17:32 the truth. Do you all have a shelter? Yeah, we have 17:34 one. So, it was that struggle well who do 17:38 have the truth. In my Bible the First Day 17:42 Churches do all that Jesus tell them to do in 17:44 Matthew 25 about when you do it to the least of 17:48 one of these, you have done it to me. But the 17:51 Adventist Church I have the truth but you don't 17:53 have nowhere for where I can and get a deeper 17:55 study and learn more about a religion that I've 17:59 just came into. Years ago got involved with a friend 18:03 Nathan Edwards who was one of the Elders of the church. 18:05 He was in prison ministry and during that time we 18:10 will go out to the prison here in Gainesville and as 18:14 it was, this was about 18 or 19 years ago and we 18:18 would get Bible studies out at the prison. Well, 18:21 later on Jeff Carb came along. Jeffrey happened to come 18:26 through, throughout prison ministries with one of my 18:30 workers. And when he got out he decided that he 18:36 needed to have a place to go in order to help him to 18:40 strengthen his belief, but there was no place to go. 18:43 So, the Lord impressed him to start a half way 18:47 house, to help inmates who believe in our message 18:51 when they get out to know the truth, understand the 18:54 truth. I didn't know what to expect, because 18:58 I mean we were starting from scratch. There was no, 19:01 there was nothing there and it was really just sort 19:05 of an idea in Jeffrey's mind about what this was 19:09 going to be. So, I can't say that I knew what we, 19:13 even what we were going to do. It provides you 19:18 with a bed, it provides you with guidance, it 19:20 provides you with a ministry that explains 19:26 God's word to you. And again that's all people need. 19:27 We need a foundation to get yourself back on your 19:30 freedom. You need some place where you can call a 19:34 secure address. You can't get a job, you can't do 19:37 anything out there in the world today if we don't 19:39 have an address, you don't have a phone to work for. 19:41 Most employees won't even bother to look at you. 19:44 That's why the Lord impressed on me shelter 19:47 from his home. Because it's a storm when you 19:50 come out of prison. You got to start from scratch. 19:54 Everybody know your old ways. You know but 19:57 they're say well, he's just gonna come by and do 20:00 the same thing. Not only that when you leave prison 20:02 the guards will tell you, you'll leave well you'll 20:04 be back. I'll see you back, I'm gonna keep this 20:07 bed for you. There are a lot of people out there 20:10 in the world today who are coming out of jails, 20:14 people who are on the streets, who are struggling 20:16 with drug and alcohol addictions, who need 20:19 some place to go and in the current economy 20:22 in America it's just impossible. There aren't 20:25 enough shelters around. There, most city governments 20:30 don't provide enough assistance. Its really tough 20:32 out there to get up on your feet once you've been 20:34 knocked out. When I got out I didn't listen 20:39 what everybody told me and I went back to my 20:42 hometown, while I've been battling storms ever since 20:47 I got out. Oh, hanging around the same people, 20:51 trying to get on my feet and something would knock 20:53 me down. And then I try get on my feet something 20:56 would knock me down. A lot of them don't have 20:58 no where to go. Hey they don't stole from their 21:02 parents, they don't submit to drug dealers, they owe 21:06 them money so some of them you know if they go 21:08 back to that old environment. They might 21:10 get killed, so and some of them be in prison and 21:14 their mother and father and most of their family 21:17 members have died, have passed away. It's not 21:21 always so easy to regain all the things that you 21:24 lose when you go to jail. And you have skeletons 21:28 in your closet that come back to haunt you and 21:31 just a lot of things works against you when 21:35 you get out of jail you know trying to start back over. 21:38 Two days before I got out of prison I had no place to 21:42 go. I didn't know where I was going, they were 21:43 talking about putting me in jail, 'cause I had, I'm 21:46 not from Florida. While I'm in sitting in with a 21:49 classification officer the phone rang and it was Mr. 21:54 Cobb and he has explained to the classification 21:58 officer that he had received a letter from another 22:01 inmate at that particular prison and that they 22:04 would accept him into the program. Then this 22:06 classification officer asked Mr. Cobb if he had a 22:10 bed open. And he said yes, we got one bed and 22:13 Mr. Cobb asked me a few questions and talked to 22:16 me and said I was welcome. So, I was welcomed 22:18 at this house. But two days prior I didn't know 22:22 where I was going and I didn't know anything 22:24 about the place. The most majority of the ones that 22:29 come through in, being baptized they weren't 22:35 no Adventist, they haven't accepted the Adventist 22:36 message in prison. When they came here it 22:38 was some new. If I would have went out on my own it 22:42 would have been a struggle, I mean truly a struggle 22:44 cause the first 48 hours is so important. They 22:48 say you need to find a church and you need if you 22:51 have a drug and alcohol problem get involved with it 22:53 towards that program. Through the ministries I was 22:56 given that immediately and it was up to me to make 23:00 them choices and follow them but it was just like I said a 23:04 blessing through God to provide this place for me. 23:07 He wasn't an Adventist, but now my God graced his 23:11 buddy, he would be getting baptized in a Seventh 23:13 Day Adventist Church. Thanks to the ministries, 23:16 the church. I'm soon to be baptized in the church 23:19 this month I think. And so, I mean I can't say enough 23:23 You know as a result of them going through from 23:26 the storm they end up coming here to watch and 23:29 they have been a real blessing to us. You know 23:31 since they have been and you know being a part of 23:34 our worship, several of them as a result of their 23:36 coming would have been baptized if they learn 23:38 more about the Lord and accepted the truth in him. 23:42 One of the Elders, Elder Frankie Owen, you know 23:46 what really touched me; he didn't know me when I 23:50 was in prison. He said you're going back to 23:52 Miami, I said I don't want to, but I don't know 23:54 where to go. He was willing to sacrifice to get 23:58 me an apartment, to live in. He didn't even much 24:05 know me. Since for me to live a different life. Right 24:11 then man, that was unconditional love. 24:16 Someone didn't know me, didn't know if I would 24:18 have went back to selling drugs or what. He was 24:24 willing, he extended that love of Christ to me. 24:25 I got involved because Jeff came to our church in 24:30 Tampa, Florida Mount Calvary Seventh-Day 24:32 Adventist Church and was speaking with us 24:34 about getting transitional homes for women. 24:37 Well, I have being praying previously for God 24:41 to get me into something like that because I'm 24:44 recovering addict as well. And so when I came to 24:48 recovery nothing like that was available in our 24:51 church. In our denomination as far as I know of and 24:55 I used to play you know what, . I want to help 24:57 women in my faith. I want to be able to give that 25:01 to the women in our faith. What can I do, 25:05 what is it, what is it that you want me to do. And 25:08 so when Jeff came to our Church recruiting us to 25:12 try to get a transitional home, it's like okay. 25:15 This is what I've been waiting for. What happened was 25:19 someone had to catch the vision that God had gave 25:25 me and what happened is I caught the vision. 25:30 I happened to be on the board of the ASi Southern 25:34 Union and we were at a board meet and we were 25:38 trying to figure out some projects which the 25:40 Southern Union could do with some ministries. 25:42 Then one day the request came to the meeting that 25:46 day was shelter from the storm of which Jeffrey 25:49 had already talked to me about plans that he 25:52 wanted to do, so when the project came up I was the 25:55 only one there that knew anything about it. I was 25:58 able to articulate what it was about, what he was 26:01 trying to do and we ought to get involved in that 26:03 ministry and we rest demand on getting the 26:06 first $25,000, so that he could start with this house 26:10 here in Gainesville, Florida. Later on by Frank on the 26:14 board of ASi, I received a call from the Southern 26:18 Union President Steve Dickman and he talked 26:21 with me and he said ASi voted to give you so 26:24 much money for the ministry. So it was a 26:28 blessing with you know, wasn't for me to decided, 26:32 you know the national and the Southern Union 26:34 this ministry will not be in existence, because a lot 26:38 of the Adventist members and family members. 26:43 They haven't went through this time. So they 26:46 can't relate. I'm not blaming the church. They 26:49 just couldn't relate and nobody could relate and 26:54 the issues that the man had from breaking that 26:57 habit of drugs and alcohol. Hey, look at here 27:02 man. It was Christ, I came out making $5 a 27:06 hour. $5 a hour ten years ago when I was selling 27:14 drugs with an organization we were making 27:16 $70,000 a night. So it had to be Christ that 27:21 changed my life. Building up the family of 27:25 God is what ASi is all about. I'm thankful for 27:29 ASi members like Shelter from the Storm that are 27:32 reaching out to people who need the love of God 27:35 in their lives. For more information about Shelter 27:38 from the Storm call 352-339-4732, and to learn 27:46 more about ASi and how you can become a 27:49 member visit www.asiministries.org. 27:54 I'm Dan Houghton. Thanks for joining me 27:56 today on ASi video magazine. Comeback 27:59 next time for more stories of ASi members sharing 28:03 Christ in the market place. God be with you. |
Revised 2014-12-17